Make a Home of Four Walls
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day three hundred and forty-seven: It's moving day for Shelby and Beth; Shelby meets the neighbor.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 16th cycle. Now cycle 17!_

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**"Make a Home of Four Walls"  
Shelby & Beth  
Sequel to Solid Ground, Baby Steps, In the most unexpected ways, and Can't Easily Forget **

She'd had Beth with her in the bed, their last night before the move. She had taken her crib apart, not the last of her tasks. By the time she could finally go to sleep, her body was just aches and more aches when her head finally hit the pillow, it was as though she'd forgotten what it felt like. She let out a breath before reaching out to place her hand over Beth. She'd woken up when Shelby had laid down, but she calmed and drifted off again. Seeing that, it had allowed her to find sleep as well.

The night was short before she had to get up and get through last minute tasks, before the movers arrived. She spent the whole time, as everything was taken from the apartment to the truck, then after the drive, from the truck to the house, with Beth strapped to her. She hummed to her, held her hand, tried to keep her at ease. She didn't want her to realize they were leaving her first home and have it traumatize her somehow. She'd settle before long, and yet Shelby worried. She'd always seen herself as driven, assertive, but the idea of her daughter being in any kind of distress, real or exaggerated, was enough to negate it all.

After a long few hours, the whole thing was done. The movers had unloaded the truck, and they'd left. Shelby didn't have the strength or will to try and start placing, assembling, unpacking just yet, so after unstrapping Beth, she'd carried her out to the backyard, taking a seat on the old swing chair the former owners had left behind. It had been barely a minute when she heard…

"I wouldn't sit there if I were you," she looked around, trying to locate the voice. "It's a bit of a death trap. Probably why they left it behind." She finally spotted the man, up in a tree house in the next yard over.

"Nice fort," she commented.

"Yeah, well there's a hole in the ceiling that needs patching," he gestured, showing a hammer. "Just moved in, yes?" Shelby nodded. "Is it just you two?" Another nod. "Need any help, the furniture?"

"Oh, I don't want to…"

"No, really, I'd be happy to do it," he insisted.

"Well, there is one thing…" she thought aloud. The man came down from the tree house, coming through the fence and up to Shelby. "Emmett Tepley," he held out his hand, which she leaned forward to shake.

"Shelby Corcoran. And this is Beth," she smiled, looking to her daughter.

"Nice to meet you both," Emmett gave a small wave to the baby before turning a smile to her mother. "So what can I help you with?" he asked.

"Well, it's just… her crib; I'd like her to be able to sleep in her own bed, but the assembling…"

"Right," Emmett nodded. "I'll go and grab my tools." Shelby watched him dash off, getting out of the 'death trap' swing chair. When he returned, Shelby led Emmett toward the house and up to the nursery.

"Thanks again, I really appreciate it," she told him as he started.

"Oh it's no problem, I'm always up for projects and… neighbor assists," he chuckled; she smirked.

"And tree house fixing…"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Joanie's been complaining about that hole in the ceiling," he explained, then realizing, "That's my daughter; she lives for that tree house."

"Is she…" Shelby indicated toward his house.

"No, she's at her mother's this week. I figured I'd use that time to patch up her ceiling." Shortly after, Emmett stood back up. "One crib," he declared, showing the finished product.

"Thank you," Shelby told him as she moved to put Beth down. "Let me get my wallet, I…"

"No, no, really, it's fine," he insisted.

"No, I insist. You did me a service…"

"As a neighbor," he pointed out. "My guess is wherever you moved from that wasn't something people did?"

"Of course they did…" Shelby maintained, nodding for the salvation of her pride. Judging from the look on Emmett's face though, he hadn't believed her. She frowned, then waved it off. "Well, thank you for the help," she bowed her head, indicating the crib.

"You're welcome," he did the same, smiling. There was a moment of silence.

"I should get back to unpacking, and uh, you should get back to your roof," she nodded. He picked up his tools.

"See you around, Corcorans," he 'tipped his hat' to them, making his way out. Shelby watched him go, smiling to herself, then snapping out of it. Her handy-neighbor-man had left her at once flustered and frustrated. But she wouldn't bother herself with that. She looked to Beth, found her to have fallen asleep. So once she'd dug out the baby monitor and gone off to take care of some things.

Much like with Beth, the first thing she'd done for herself was to fix up her bed. Likely out of sheer determination to do it without Handy Emmett's help, she'd powered through the assembling on her own. It was so much easier to take something apart than to put it together; that was a lesson she'd known to apply to many things.

With that accomplishment under her belt though, it was like she'd become Wonder Woman. She came like a whirlwind through the kitchen, putting everything in place. It wasn't as though she expected to cook on that day; she already had take-out menus at hand. Still it was an easy room to cross off her to-do list, and she'd need it in no time. By that logic, she'd done the bathrooms next.

She was considering how much a nap would solve any and all problems at that moment, when she heard cries echo from the monitor. She moved to the nursery, finding Beth awake and crying.

"Hey, what's this now, we're okay," she hushed, picking her up. "Tell you what, I have it on good authority there's a bottle downstairs that's been waiting for you," she carried her downstairs, all thoughts of exhaustion gone. Beth was fed, burped, and all was once again right with the world. "Now how about a nap?" she hummed, taking her back upstairs. She laid down with her baby girl at her side, feeling now that they were really home.

THE END

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**_[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]_**


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